SEANF Paper on Migrant Workers for administrative procedures regarding violations of immigration laws that are standard to all ASEAN countries. 38. The SEANF urges that penalties for a migrant worker remaining in an irregular or undocumented status in the territory of an ASEAN member State be made proportionate. Provisions of law that subject migrants to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment should be reviewed immediately with the aim to reform. 39. The SEANF urges that if migrant workers are charged, they are given a prompt and fair trial, in which their procedural rights are guaranteed at all times, including immediate access to a lawyer of their choice. M. Ending the seizure of migrant workers’ identity documents by employers 40. The SEANF urges the drafters of ASEAN Instrument to place priority on protecting the right of migrant workers to hold their own passports and the original Government-issued work and personal documents. Unfortunately, at many stages (pre-departure, transit, and arrival and deployment) of the migration process, a variety of private actors (recruiters in sending countries, labour brokers in the receiving country, and employers) violate migrant workers’ rights by seizing and holding their identity documents as a means of control. These actions make migrants unfairly vulnerable to arrest and deportation by authorities because the migrants cannot show proof of their legal status. The SEANF recommends that the ASEAN Instrument should contain provisions that require all ASEAN member states to set out severe legal penalties against any person who willfully destroys, mutilates or confiscates migrant workers’ travel, work or personal identity documents issued by any Government agency from the labour sending or receiving country. N. Special vulnerability of migrant domestic workers 41. The SEANF recommends that special attention is made in the ASEAN Instrument to the very serious abuses suffered by migrant women working in domestic service. Working in private homes, migrant domestic workers are subject to numerous violations of their rights including: seizure of their identification documents; restrictions on their rights to freedom of movement and association; 26